1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to utility monitoring systems and more particularly to systems for communicating between remote locations.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Metering devices have for years been used in the monitoring of utility consumption, such as water, electricity, gas, to name a few. Utility providers have typically utilized metering devices at the various locations of its customers, i.e., residences or businesses, in order to monitor the consumption of a given utility. The utility provider would monitor the utility consumption by reading the various metering devices at each of the customer locations. In recent years, it has been recognized that the costs incurred by the utility provider have significantly increased in view of the numerous employees required to manually read each of the metering devices at the customer locations; especially in view of the higher number of customers of many current day utility providers.
In view of the foregoing, there is seen a need to provide a system for monitoring of metering devices from remote locations in order to reduce both the time and costs associated with manual reading of metering devices.